"Valuable potential"

How to give people with disabilities more job opportunities

Bellaflora is one of the companies in Upper Austria that is increasingly focusing on hiring people with disabilities.

(Bild: Horst Einöder)

Around 15 percent of people in Austria have a permanent disability. In Upper Austria, more than 10,000 of the 34,000 unemployed currently have health impairments. They are now to be given more opportunities to access the labor market.

"People with disabilities represent a valuable and indispensable potential workforce," says Angelika Sery-Froschauer, Vice President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKOÖ). "Positive support and encouragement" are more beneficial than exerting pressure in order to be able to deploy them in the labor market to the best of their abilities. With this in mind, state politicians and the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce have recently developed measures to improve job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Trial period in companies
LH Thomas Stelzer, Social Welfare Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (both ÖVP) and Sery-Froschauer presented the measures on Monday. A new employment model is to create a kind of trial period. People with disabilities will work in a company for a maximum of one year with the aim of gaining a foothold in the primary labor market afterwards.

Let's not focus on impairments, but rather use the potential and promote the strengths of all people of working age.

Angelika Sery-Froschauer, WKOÖ-Vizepräsidentin

Inclusion subsidy for wage costs
To make it more attractive for companies to hire employees with disabilities, there will be an inclusion subsidy towards wage costs. The exact details are currently still being negotiated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and are scheduled to start in the fall. In addition, dedicated advice centers will be set up for companies as well as for people with disabilities and their families to help them integrate into the world of work.

"Everyone benefits from this"
"We want to place more people with disabilities in employment, especially directly in companies," says Hattmannsdorfer. Stelzer adds: "Everyone benefits from this - the people as well as the companies, and it offers many new opportunities for both sides."